If the last day of World cup #2 wasn’t as chaotic as Saturday, bad luck still stuck to some of the superstars of short track. It sure wasn’t the case with Canada’s Kim Boutin who added two other medals to her collection.
By Carl Savard
Photos by Martin Holtom and Speed Skating Canada - Greg Kolz
Boutin and Liu grab gold on 500m
After irreproachable performances in the rounds leading to the final, Canada’s Kim Boutin and Alyson Charles had tough opponents to beat in the big final if they wanted to win a medal. Poland’s Natalia Maliszewska and Italy’s Martina Valcepina are 500m specialists and they were ready to fight. If from the get go the rhythm seemed way too fast for Charles, Kim Boutin was at ease with the fast pace she was setting for the others. A pace that helped her win her fourth gold medal in the fourth individual distance she was competing on since the beginning of the season. “The competition is fierce, the girls can follow a fast pace. My goal was to be more strategic, because when I’m strategic, I’m calm and when I’m calm, I’m fast.” Valcepina won the silver medal while Maliszewska won the bronze.
On the men’s side, Liu Shaolin Sandor managed to win the gold medal thanks to a flawless maneuver in the last portion of the race to pass Korea’s Hwang Dae Heon. The Korean is leaving Montreal with the silver medal while Russia’s Pavel Sitnikov finished in third place. Liu was really proud of his win. “I'm not a 500m skater because my start is not as fast as the other guys but we didn't start the race too fast. I skated under forthy seconds on the distance for the first time last week and I think I'm getting better on the 500m.”
1000m: A silver medal for Sarault, Elistratov brings down a Korean wall
On 1000m, the local fans were excited to see Courtney Sarault in the A final on the distance. Joining her on the line were China’s Han Yu Tong and Zhang Yuting, Russia’s Ekaterina Efremenkova and Italy’s Cynthia Mascitto. Halfway through, Sarault took control of the race and seemed to be heading to the top of the podium until Han Yu Tong found a last boost of energy to pass her at the end. Efremenkova leaves with a bronze medal. “I'm really satisfied with my silver medal but of course I'm always going for the gold. That's kind of my motto. For me to get the silver it was really nice. It motivates me to go and train to work on that last lap so I can get that gold.”
With highlight reel type of performance, Russia’s Semen Elistratov offered quite a show to the crowd of the Maurice-Richard arena. A performance that allowed him to defeat a strong group composed of three Korean skaters and one Kazakh. With a fully controlled moved, Elistratov was able to get out of the Korean pack and cross the finish line first. He was joined on the podium by Park In Wook (silver) and Park Ji Won (bronze).
A tie a the top on the men’s relay!
A few times this weekend, the results were decided by a thousandth of a second but even that tiny fraction of time wasn’t enough to determine the winner of the men’s relay. With only three laps to go, Hungary was able to move up in the pack after an error by China and ended up taking the lead on the following exchange. While Liu Shaolin Sandor was slowed down by his fight to stay ahead of the Russian skater, Hwang Dae Heon gathered speed on the outside to come and challenge Liu at the finish line. The photo finish showed the two skaters crossing the line at the same time with a time of 6:55.968. Russia finished in third place of this crazy relay event.
The women’s relay final saw China finishing first while Russia finished second. The Canadian ladies ended their weekend with the bronze medal. “I’m not satisfied. I would have liked for us to finish second or even first. We did a good job although the team is young and we have things to learn from all the small errors we did today. For example in my finish I was way to wide and there are some adjustments that I need to make concerning that.” These words from Kim Boutin say a lot. Only gold can satisfy the Sherbrooke native right now.
For yesterday's article, click HERE
For Friday's article, click HERE
For the detailed results, click HERE
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